Less than 24 hours after CNN broadcast a scathing segment on how the Russian government was refusing to prosecute Maxim Martsinkevich, an ultra-nationalist who has formed a nationwide organization that kidnaps and tortures young gay teens, Cuba has arrested Martsinkevich.

Kidnapped Russian gay teen is forced to drink what he’s told is urine after his captor – ultra nationalist leader Maxim Martsinkevich – strips him naked, shaves his head, and paints a rainbow flag on his scalp.

The Russian press mentions Marcinkiewicz’s videos inciting hatred, but makes no mention of who the target was: gay and trans people. Another Russian outlet, Novaya Gazeta, claimed that Marcinkiewicz, who goes by the names of Slasher and Tesak, was arrested for videos insulting World War II veterans, and fantasizing about Germany winning the war. Again, nothing about kidnapping and torturing gays, and establishing a nationwide criminal network to do the same.

Pavel Durov, founder of VK.com, a Russian social media site used by Russian ultra-nationalists to broadcast their gay-bashing videos and photos.

As we reported as early as last July, Marcinkiewicz and his accomplices lure young gay teens into meeting, and then kidnap them, strip them naked, shave their heads, paint rainbows on them, make them play with sex toys, force them to drink what they claim is urine, and then threaten them with violence and with being outed. All the while they are being videotaped, and the videos and photos of the crime are then posted on Russian social media outlet VK.com, among others.

Some of Occupy Pedophilia’s victims are as young as 15 years of age, if not younger.

15 year old gay Russian boy kidnapped, and tortured, by anti-gay vigilantes that the Russian government refused to arrest. He is from a small rural town and was threatened with being outed after being forced to drink urine.

Some of Maxim Martsinkevich’s accomplices are readily visible in the photos he’s posted on VK.com. Will the Russians arrest them as well?

The Russians have known about Marcinkiewicz kidnapping gays for at least seven months, when western media began reporting on it. However, Marcinkiewicz’s claims he’s been doing this for 18 months. Marcinkiewicz’s face, and the faces of his accomplices, have been readily available in all the videos. Still, the Russian government refused to take action until only a few months ago, when foreign media attention and pressure apparently became too great.

No word on whether the Russians have troubled themselves to also go after Marcinkiewicz’s accomplices, whose faces are all too visible in many of the kidnap/torture videos and photos he’s posted on VK.com, including the one to the right.

Russian ultra nationalist leader Maxim Martsinkevich kidnapped, then gave this gay youth a choice: lose an eye, or be sodomized with a fork.

The question remains as to how long Russian social media mogul, Pavel Durov, who founded a Russian clone of Facebook called VK.com, is going to permit Marcinkiewicz and his criminal enterprise, Occupy Pedophilia, to use VK.com to organize and publicize its crimes. Marcinkiewicz and his network use VK.com to post videos and photos they’ve taken of their kidnappings and torture.

It’s something unimaginable to an American or European social media audience. But Durov allows it.

Pavel Durov, who controls VK.com, a social media site used by Russian criminals to post videos of the kidnapping and torture of gays.

To date, Marcinkiewicz profile on VK.com, which includes numerous videos and photos of his kidnappings and torture of young gay men, is still live. And has been for a while. The profile shows nearly 135,000 followers. Martsinkevich’s VK.com profile includes photos like this:

And this:

And this:

Note that this is a 3rd different victim.

And this:

Some of Durov’s victims are not targeted based on their sexual orientation. He claims some are drug dealers, and other segments of society he doesn’t like. It’s unclear why this victim was was selected. He’s naked, by the way.

And videos like this (this is a screen capture of the video posted on VK.com two months):

Video of Maxim Martsinkevich’s kidnapping and hitting a young gay man – the video is posted on VK.com. In the video every time Martsinkevich goes to hit his victim, they black out the screen, but you can hear him being hit, and him protesting.

As I have no where to post the actual video, here’s a snippet done in animated gif format. Every time you see the Russian words come up, Martsinkevich is punching his victim (he appears to be punching him in the kidney in one frame). I’ve frozen the video for one second each time the victim is about to be hit. If you could hear the sound, you’d hear the punches and the victim begging for Martsinkevich to stop, which Martsinkevich’s accomplices laugh in the background. This is the the kind of anti-gay violence that Durov permits to be posted on VK.com.

VK.com is supposedly the 4th most visited website in all of Europe. I’d have thought Europe would have had laws against Web sites that glorify the abduction and torture of 15 year olds.

Video of Maxim Martsinkevich’s kidnapping and hitting a young gay man – the video is posted on VK.com.

How is this not aiding and abetting the serial kidnapping and torture of young gay and trans teens?

Pavel Durov fashions himself as the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia, jetting to technology conferences around the world. But for all the things you can say about Facebook’s Zuckerberg, he never profited off of the serial kidnapping and torture of LGBT teens.

Durov should be ashamed of himself.

Perhaps it’s time people took a closer look at Durov’s and VK.com’s business ventures. It would be quite interesting to see what large international brands are willing to associate themselves with a business and person who made their wealth in part off the backs of kidnapped and tortured gay and trans teenagers.

And before anyone raises the issue of “censorship” or “freedom of speech,” name me a social media company, besides VK.com, that would permit kidnappers to post videos of their teenage victims’ abduction and torture, and then would permit the kidnappers to use their Web site to organize themselves and their criminal kidnapping enterprise. Facebook? Twitter? Tumblr? No. No one would.

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John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

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Maxim Martsinkevich is Jew. His family were Polish Jews heritage who immigrate from Germany in Russia during the ww2 and his grandfather fought against the nazis.How can a jew being nazi after what happen to his family?

Dakota Calhoon

bummer! i was hoping someone was going to shoot him in the head, and his vulgar ugly girlfriend, with her cheap haircut. it was going in the direction of a perfect setup for a horrific crime of poetic justice. Just to have one of those boys pull out a magnum 45 and blow the shit out of him and his sidekicks. He is a big pussy tho, to pick on those little kids who are incredibly small-framed in comparison to his size. You just know he is the kind of person who is going to see a really bad ending…. when you create such bad energy it just comes with the territory… I guess we now have wait and see how it pans out. I would LOVE to see him get a taste of his own medicine. Maybe the boys inside will try out the dildo on him… he may come out from the experience a completely different person ;-)

Ray Mahloji

You don’t have to be violent to be gay. Be a lover! Bottom is best! Ray Mahloji

IhateRussians

Russia is a terrible country with terrible people. They deserve to be shot.
Hitler didn’t even like them – he referred to them as “sub-human”.
The majority of ethnic Russians aren’t truly white either, deriving from Asia.

Domina Elle

Maxim appears to me to be a deeply tormented man who is likely GAY. He hates this so much, that he must attack other gay men to validate himself. What a sad world! If people were free, if people truly owned themselves and were able to develop free from intolerance, fear, judgments, condemning environments structured via ideologies, we would not be seeing this. Maxim is a very sick man.

Ninong

I revised my post above to say that he has already been “sentenced” in absentia. I’m using a machine translation (Google Translate) of Russian media reports because my one year of Russian was a very long time ago. I’m not sure if I understood it correctly the first time. “Sentenced in absentia” may not be the same as “convicted in absentia.”

I say that because he was arrested Jan. 27 when his flight from Havana arrived in Moscow and then ordered to appear in court Jan. 29 to be “fully charged.” He refused to make any statement whatsoever.

My guess, and it’s strictly a guess, is that the conviction rate in Russia for persons charged by the state is probably very, very high. Maybe not 98%, like it is in China, but high nonetheless. I think he expects that he will be sent to the gulag for the next 3.5 years, which is the term he was “sentenced to in absentia.” However, I think maybe there will be a formal court proceeding still to come that actually “convicts” him. Their judicial system is not the same as ours.

Here is an unedited cut and paste of the machine translation of the Russian news report:
“29.01.2014, Moscow 13:47:45 parliamentarian, Maxim Martinkevich, known as “the Hatchet”, charged with h. 2 article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (incitement of hatred or hostility, as well as the degradation of human dignity on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, religion with violence or the threat thereof). He refused to testify, the press service of the main Investigation Department of the investigative Committee of Russia in Moscow.

“According to investigators, m. Martsinkevich deployed in social networks video clips that contain expressions of hatred based on nationality.

“December 13, 2013 Kuncevskij Court of Moscow sentenced in absentia were arrested and declared a “Tesaka” in the search. M. Martsinkevich was detained in Cuba January 17, 2014 at the request of Interpol. 27 January he accompanied by staff from the national Office of Interpol was taken to Moscow.”

That’s the latest on this criminal. According to previous reports, he was also charged with making extremely unpatriotic comments in one of the video clips he posted that wouldn’t it have been great if the Nazis had won the war. WTF? Is he crazy? If they didn’t arrest him before for simply kidnapping and beating up gays, they’re bound to arrest him now for saying something like that. They probably have a law that covers it or they’re make up something.

Mighty

Thank you for the reply. Much appreciated. I still worry he will be the exception and not the rule. What are the stats on similar crimes and actual justice being dispensed.

anonymous

Well, I don’t know much about Facebook except that it’s basically a platform for advertisement.

ComradeRutherford

Ah, I see. Sorry it took me so long to get it.

This reminds me of Facebook’s war on women. They allow photos of beaten women posted to boast about how fun it is to beat women, but ban all photos of breastfeeding, even the ones that show no nipple at all. Clearly Facebook’s owner endorses violence against women and hates breastfeeding.

anonymous

Yes, but again, the issue that I took with this article is the blame that was put on the owner of the website for NOT using censorship. Censorship in itself isn’t inherently wrong, but blaming others for not censoring something that doesn’t violate any rules is. That’s all I’m trying to say.

ComradeRutherford

In the USA, the argument is generally made that private corporations are allowed to restrict speech, while governments are not. This was the nugget around the Duck Dynasty character who was mildly punished by A&E, the network that produces the show. The reactionary right claimed he was being censored, and the counter argument is that his media outlet is free to do as they wish when one of their major stars embarrasses them in public.

I agree that censorship is an over-arching term that covers any suppression of freedom of speech, no matter who or what entity is doing it.

But you agree that a private entity is allowed to control who is using their forum, as you said a few comments upthread: “Honestly, if you want to censor somebody on your own site for whatever reason then that’s fine.”

And that is basically what we are discussing here, there is a perceived difference between a private company deleting offensive comments – as they do here on Raw Story, and a government issuing edicts that banish words and thoughts from society – as they do in a place like, say, China.

anonymous

“Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public
communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive,
politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by a government,
media outlet or other controlling body.”
This is what I found on wikipedia. I haven’t managed to find where it says that only governments can do it.

ComradeRutherford

Fair enough on the spelling! English is a ridiculous language.

As to censorship, it is generally recognized that only governments can actually Censor! anything, when a private entity does it, it’s not called censorship. So by banning this poster on a website, they are not being censored, which I thought this article was talking about…

anonymous

It’s not advocating to allow them a public forum, it’s more of a “not denying them their right to freedom of speech”.

Honestly, if you want to censor somebody on your own site for whatever reason then that’s fine. It’s not something I agree with, but I can understand why you’d chose to do that. On the other hand, blaming someone else for not going down the same path is plain wrong, especially in a situation like this. vk.com is a huge website, with over a hundred million users. There are no doubt other questionable individuals registered there. Durov isn’t supporting those people, he just doesn’t agree with censorship and I respect that.

As for my spelling, you’ll have to excuse me on that. English isn’t my first language.

ComradeRutherford

By not censoring them, you *are* advocating to allow them a public forum. So you can’t say you are not advocating that. And I agreed that giving them access to the public arena allows normal people to more easily keep track of the evils *those* people are advocating.

However, I censor people that blog on my site all the time. And Raw Story censors people here, too. I ask you for your opinion on that, since it is the same censorship.

You are certainly correct about the US media’s promotion of crimes and ignorance.

And please spell ‘censorship’ correctly if you want to be taken seriously by others.

anonymous

I’m not advocating anything, stop putting words in my mouth. All I’m saying is sensorship is wrong. If you want to see promotion of crime look at American media. That’s what you should be worrying about, not some degenerate homophobe showing off to other homophobes.

ComradeRutherford

Your advocating to allow every vile murderer to promote their crimes does have some good upsides. It allows rational people to ‘keep tabs’ on the violent criminals in our midst, if they are *censored* then they carry on, but out of sight. And by documenting their own crimes it makes it easier for them to be prosecuted and jailed.

PeteWa

ah, I knew we’d have a pedophile fan like yourself show up here sooner or later.

Podpolny Al

Don’t even try to draw conclusions. He has no kids. In vk,com, famous people put their fans in the list of childrens or relatives for money.

And even if he had children — it doesn’t mean that he is already guilty.

Podpolny Al

Yea, using word “gay” as a pointless insult is offensive, but “pedohile” is more than okay. Acceptable targets among gays — for the sake of looking better by the comparison.

anonymous

Sensorship is never the answer. Sensoring users doesn’t make them disappear, that’s just stupid.

sasa

GAY=DEAD XAXA STUPID GAY

Joe

Sorry for wondering if he was ok.

Ninong

John,
Photo 211 above is of an Iraqi gay man they lured into a trap in Ukraine. Martsinkevich took a trip to Ukraine to run his little Occupy Pedophilia operation over there but he ran into problems because the Iraqi community complained to the police and the police opened a criminal investigation. It was that investigation that caused Martsinkevich to say he had gone on “an emergency vacation” to Thailand in November 2013. Apparently the Iraqi community didn’t realize when they filed the complaint that their countryman was going to meet a teenage boy. They thought it was a teenage girl. They dropped the complain when they learned it was a teenage boy. The police had already opened the investigation.

I don’t believe any of his “beach” video clips because I think he’s shooting himself in front of a green screen and then adding the beach background later. I noticed that it’s the exact same location and same time of day in more than one video clip. Now we know that he’s in Cuba. Maybe he was in Cuba all along and not Thailand? He has been to Cuba before.

Ninong

Maxim “Tesak” Martsinkevich and his bear buddies enjoy a little time off.

ComradeRutherford

“Should it be removed just because the guy who owns the profile is a violent homophobe and ultra nationalist? If that’s your line of reasoning then you might as well remove half the users on vk.com AND all the other social media sites.”

OK, then let’s get busy.

ComradeRutherford

Yeah, Clinton ’92 was the last time I voted for the Mainstream Democrat, after seeing him completely screw the Democratic Voting Base and helping pass more pro-GOP legislation that had been blocked for the previous 12 years of Bush I.

Bill_Perdue

Alternatively, he was just trying to amass points with the rich, especially Sam Waltons litter so that he could have a ‘secure retirement’. It worked. Clinton has earned $106 million from grateful companies as a speaker at business functions, For instance he crossed union and LGBT picket lines to deliver a speech in San Diego.

Hey, now. Clinton was just trying to be in the Center, between the reactionary right crackpot Republicans and the moderate right Democrats.

Ninong

The American concept of freedom of speech is broader and more inclusive than that in most other countries, even Western European countries. For example, we tolerate peaceful demonstrations by the KKK or Nazis, something that is clearly a violation of the law in Germany. Germany is very sensitive to Nazi propaganda because of their history.

Vladimir Putin has decided that The Gays will be his “enemy within” and “the West” his “enemy without,” meaning outside. His goal is to consolidate his control of the Russian people by giving them a common enemy, both within and outside the Federation. It’s them against The Gays and them against the immoral, corrupt West, led by the United States. They’re so much better than that because they reject The Gays.

Putin’s view of homosexuality is no different from that shared by the Tea Party Republicans and right-wing fundamentalist Christians in this country. They think it’s a choice and that homosexuals recruit young people to replenish their ranks. They reject the idea that it’s an innate orientation.

Putin’s new law against propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors is intended to limit, if not erradicate, their “gay problem.” Iran’s way of doing that is to publicly hang anyone accused of engaging in homosexual acts even if it means arresting them when they’re only 16 years old and then holding them in prison until they turn 18 before the hanging.

Alex Portnoy

Thank you: excellent post. Two follow-on thoughts:

First, in Russian culture, evidently, the criminality here is located is in Martsinkevich’s head — it’s ideology, thoughts, mentation.

American culture, for what it’s worth, has enormous toleration for ideology, thoughts, and thinking. What, I suspect, most Americans would intuitively sense as criminal in his behavior, and what all American criminal codes address, is the non-consenting sexualized assault, battery, rape, and mayhem on an innocent victim.

Then, the notion that there is no commonly accepted vernacular word for homosexual / gay / same-sex, whatever, is stunning. It reminds me of Ahmadinejad’s claim, at Columbia University in September 2007, that there are no homosexuals in Iran. Very Wittengestein: What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

Well, silence is broken. This Martsinkevich breaks the silence of Russian culture, and, the Solchi Olympics are serving to help break that silence.

Interesting point. It’s likely that there are other violent gang leaders just like Maxim, but he’s targeted because he’s a dissident. Good riddance, either way.

“Then they came for me, because there was no one left.”

Ninong

I don’t think Martsinkevich endeared himself to Putin when he congratulated all the Communists who were elected in the last national election to the Duma. Remember, the Communists picked up seats and Putin’s United Russia party lost seats, in spite of all the shenanigans Putin’s people pulled, such as some precincts reporting more votes than there are registered voters there. Stuffing the ballot boxes.

The 450-member Duma right now has 238 United Russia, 92 Communist Party, 64 A Just Russia (socialists) and 56 LDPR (nationalists). United Russia might not have had a majority were it not for all the alleged rigging that Putin is charged with by the opposition. Putin did not want to have to form a coalition government because he sees himself as Tsar for Life (or Tsaritza, as the case may be). Tsaritza Vladimira.

Anonymous

That would be nice, except their worship of a corrupt government will prevent that from happening.

Ninong

He has already been convicted in absentia (December 2013 in Moscow) and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison! Remember, he did a 3-yr-prison sentence earlier and just got out about a year or so ago. So this won’t be his first rodeo.

Maybe Putin wants to put him on ice for a few years. He just didn’t want to charge him with anything that sounded like it had anything to do with the gay, so he was convicted of “skinhead ideology.”

Anonymous

I’m kind of surprised that there are anti-skinhead laws in Russia at all. If that’s the case, they definitely don’t apply them. They only charged Maxim after his crimes were overlapping into Olympics publicity. Surely there are many more where he came from.

Ninong

He has already been convicted in absentia (mid-December 2013) and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for the crime of “skinhead ideology,” or “nationalism,” or “extremism.” Those are the three different ways I have seen his crime described. Anyway, the “evidence” against him was three video clips he posted to VK in September 2013 that “experts” concluded “demonstrated skinhead ideology.”

I think they mean kidnapping and beating up gay men but they don’t want to call it that, so they call it “skinhead ideology.”

He spent three years in prison before for the crime of “extremism” when he was the leader of Format 18. He just got out a year or so ago. He was chubby when he went in but worked out in prison. Now he’s one of his biggest fans. He’s constantly posting shirtless selfies. He’s a narcissistic sadist, if there is such a thing.

This was done last July when the topic first came up on this forum. A couple of days of that is all anybody can take. Since then he has edited out almost all of the actual violence from his videos but apparently not enough to satisfy the Russian police because he has now been convicted in absentia (in December 2013) for the crime of “skinhead ideology,” based on three video clips he posted on VK in September 2013 and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

Anonymous

I read an article about the children of a rapist/murderer crying over his “painful 25 minute death” through lethal injection. I guess it’s sad, in a way, that kids of people like this know nothing else. The desire to have a bond with their parent makes them irrational.

Anonymous

I appreciate the amount of firsthand research you’ve done on this topic. If I may be honest, it’s too overwhelming for me. I find it hard to actually delve into his page myself.

That’s probably why people like this are able to get away with so much. Sane people are repulsed by criminals like this, and find it hard to remain calm and do research. Interfering with gangs, pedophile rings etc. make you lose faith in humanity.

Ninong

According to the very latest articles in the Russian media, Maxim Martsinkevich’s attorney, Matthew Zeng, claims that “he may be applying for political asylum in Cuba.” His attorney further claims that Cuba cannot extradite him because the crimes Russia charged him with are not crimes in Cuba.

According to a Russian media report from mid-December, he was “arrested in absentia” on charges stemming from “three video clips he posted to VK in September” because “experts” concluded that the videos “demonstrate skinhead ideology.” That would be a violation of Russian criminal code but according to the lawyer, Cuba’s criminal code does not have penalties for “inciting hostility to a social group with violence.” I’m not sure if the lawyer is acknowledging that Martsinkevich’s problems in Russia stem from his violence towards gays or simply “skinhead ideology.”

It’s sort of vague. Russia doesn’t even have a politically correct word for gays, so they recently invented one: “nontraditional orientation.” That’s it’s. It’s two English words written in Cyrillic. The most common word in Russia is pedik, which is just a dimunitive of pedophile. Just write both of those words in Cyrillic and you have them. By the way, if you want to find news in the Russian media on Martsinkevich, especially the social media, just search using his Russian nickname Тесак (Tesak in English, meaning slasher).

So as of yesterday, his attorney says he will seek political asylum in Cuba if Russia tries to extradite him because he would almost certainly be sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for the crime of “skinhead ideology” if Russia ever gets him back.

Ninong

They took quite a few items from his room with them but the tore up his two Nazi flags on the spot because you can see that in some of the news reports of the raid. He had a Nazi flag on the wall and another Nazi flag on the inside of the door. He was very proud of his Nazi heritage and bragged that his grandfather was an SS stormtrooper. He never did say how his grandmother came to “meet” his grandfather but apparently it happened either during or shortly after WWII.

He has his own Nazi uniform and posted several photos of himself wearing a Nazi SS uniform. It seemed too new looking to be his grandfather’s. He posted a photo of anabolic steroids with a needle beside them on the table with the caption “vitamins.”

Many of his earlier photos and videos were much more horrific than the ones circulating online now. VK used to shut him down — temporarily — but then he would pop up again a few days or a few weeks later after editing out the violent bits from the videos. Instead of actually seeing him land the blows you would just see a black screen but theatrical sound effects but when the live action resumed the victim would be in obviously worse shape. Some of his victims were bloodied and black and blue by the end of the video clip even though all of the actual blows had been edited out.

He’s clearly sadistic and enjoys what he does. Worse still he has thousands of followers throughout northern Russia, most of them still teenagers or early 20’s. He and his followers are very racist as well as homophobic. Some of their victims are simply migrants from the southern regions of the Russian Federation who went to Moscow in search of jobs. If they don’t look like northern Europeans and don’t have a Moscovite accent, they’re in trouble if he and his gang get ahold of them.

Anonymous

Why would they? The government is corrupt. Best to put the focus back on their politicians’ numerous crimes. Stories like this just make gay-bashers salivate.

Anonymous

Looks like his “naked torture rituals” are the first step to Gacy-style crimes. Pretty soon he will be getting his goods from them, murdering them, and idiots will be cheering him on. He’s starting the cycle of abuse by convincing society to let him kidnap gay kids.

Maybe they’ll send him to Kansas to do missionary community work with the Phelps family.

Mighty

I don’t see the Russian government doing anything about him. At best a show trial where he gets off or some ridiculously light sentence at worst they don’t bother and in fact further encourage others to do as he does.

Gdawggy

Well the saddest part is that they probably don’t know anything other than what he’s taught him. They probably think he’s a hero.

Alex Portnoy

Martsinkevich clearly has a deeply repressed but very openly and well-expressed strong gay S/M proclivity, with him cast as the sadist. He’s classic Sade, but with a gay twist. Motives aside, the criminality itself is within a scale that we’ve seen before and will see again — John Wayne Gacy, anyone? Jeffrey Dahmer? O.k., so these are truly horrible crimes, and surely Martsinkevich is unaware that he’s inadvertently outing himself at the same time he displays his activities.

The difference, the key fundamental cultural difference, is the degree to which he was able to brazenly and openly promote, publicize, and advertise his criminal and extremely sexualized activities. And, that, from the outset, he showed his face and did not evince any effort to act covertly, but rather overtly advertised these heinous crimes, indicates he was aware, not only, that in Russian society he could do so with impunity, but that his efforts would be considered heroic by many.

That’s the observation from the 50,000 foot view: Culture matters, and American culture — our norms, our latitude of conduct, our public policy of erring in favor of tolerance and acceptance of diversity — ranks high in the world’s cultures. We have our issues, but compared to Mother Russia (and, pretty much, any of “new” states of the old Soviet Union), and to any theocratic Muslim state, and to many SubSaharan African states — compared to them, well, America ain’t so bad. Especially lately.

Ashta Aditya

No, he isn’t and you sound ill and uninformed.

Palto

Why would you even ask that? Would you get an erection if he did?

Palto

Bravo!

Palto

What absolute bullshit. Chop this monster’s balls off.

goulo

He has 2 children? Ugh.
I cannot imagine the shame I would feel at having such a hateful smug stupid brutal thug for a father. :(

PeteWa

indeed, and he’s obviously getting a thrill by his sadistic treatment of these children, he’s a pervert who found a way to get the tacit approval from the public at large (in Russia) for his rape of children.

It will be interesting to see if Russian prosecutors and courts are as homophobic as their American counterparts. I suspect they will be given the level of state and cult sponsored homophobia in both countries.

Tony

good work, Max! let’s clean this World!

Anonymous

Yeah, “Max” is really protecting the kids – by beating them. That’s just one hole in your argument.

Mark Lee

You want Russians to rethink something? How about starting with creating a law that would actually sentence pedophiles?

Mark Lee

Then I hope your own children get molested by pedophiles. Because that’s what Maxim was fighting against.

michael

Ok, the article is about the gay bashing, luring of young men (youngest being 15) torturing, beating, and degrading them.

get your facts right you fucking homophobic douche

Mark Lee

Retarded American press got it all backwards as usual. He wasn’t kidnapping anyone. He was making traps for pedophiles (not simple homosexuals) and when those pedophiles were about to have sex with an underaged bait, that’s when Maxim and his guys come out to humiliate and beat up those pedophiles on camera, so that pedophile’s relatives and neighbours would know who that person actually was.

Max and his team even made a public prosecutor lose his job when that guy was caught molesting a child on camera (yes, that’s the maximum sentence for pedophilia in Russia — to lose one’s job; yay). Maxim and few others were doing actual good for the children, because there’s no actual law in Russia that would sentence pedophiles due to a strong pedophile lobby inside the Duma (Russian federal assembly). And that’s why he was finally forced to flee the country.

So, while you want him to rot in jail forever, imagine your own child would get molested by a pedophile and you won’t be able to do anything legal about it.

Priestpilot

I have been trying to come into contact with Russians about this despite the language barrier. The anti-gay ones will say mind your own business, but the pro-gay ones do say that they need the support from the west and that the situation would be worse if the west did not care. I am following pro-LGBT organizations on VK and I have some hope about some Russians that are not ignorant and that they wish that the LGBT can live freely and safely in Russia.

ComradeRutherford

Are the US GOP getting ideas from him, or did he get his ideas from the US GOP? Inquiring minds want to know.

Putin the Terrible

They should send him to an American prison where there are no security cameras and where he will become someones bitch forcing him to suck their black c**k. :D But then again it’s not rape if you actually like it and he may be a major closet gay like Putin.

Putin the Terrible

Putin actually said very recently that 85% of voters are for the Anti-Gay laws and that foreigners should mind their own business. The only reason why they haven’t gone completely full throttle is because of the West so apparently our influence does count for something to spite what Russians might think.

Putin the Terrible

Russia has stood against gay rights so harshly BEFORE the Olympics, I can only image what its like afterwords. The thing is Russians find Westerns so racist and massively against true freedom yet thing their lifestyles are 100% natural for it’s to ‘purify’ the holiest of nations. wow

RepubAnon

He’ll be charged with “Making Putin look bad in the international press” – as soon as the international press drops the story, the prosecutor will drop the case as moot.

With so much in common with the GOP, it’d be irresponsible not to ask.

NMRon

I heard he was on the way to a strategy meeting with the GOP Congressional Campaign Committee. I think it was to be in the Governor’s Mansion in Florida. Or maybe it was Texas.

Anonymous

They already found numerous weapons in his home. They didn’t do much about it.

Anonymous

Guantanamo Bay anyone?

anonymous

I don’t see how Durov has anything to do with this. Maxim’s profile page doesn’t violate any of the website’s rules and policies. Should it be removed just because the guy who owns the profile is a violent homophobe and ultra nationalist? If that’s your line of reasoning then you might as well remove half the users on vk.com AND all the other social media sites.

mamazboy

This guy screams closet case to me. The naked pic is especially telling.

Zorba

Yes, I am thinking the same thing.
(And I am also thinking that Russia will be re-arresting the members of Pussy Riot after the Olympics are over and everyone has gone home. After all, the Pussy Riot women are still engaging in activism, currently focusing on the atrocious conditions in Russian prisons.)

❦❦❦Ꭴ❦ ❦❦❦❦❦ ❦❦❦❦ ❦❦❦❦❦ᏳPerhaps it’s time people took a closer look at Durov’s and VK.com’s business ventures.

Mike_in_the_Tundra

I share your concern about the charges disappearing after the Olympics.

FLL

Russia would not have put Martsinkevich’s name on an Interpol list if CNN hadn’t run that segment. And… and… CNN would not have run that segment if activists had not given the activities of Martsinkevich continuous exposure on the Internet. It was a chain reaction that worked. John and other bloggers and vloggers can take some credit for the successful dynamics of that chain reaction.

jomicur

Pardon my native skepticism, but I can’t help wondering how long Martsinkevich will remain in custody and whether the charges against him will magically disappear after the Olympics. I hope that won’t happen, but either way his arrest in the wake of the CNN broadcast is the clearest indication that outside pressure is the way to get the Russians to rethink what they’re doing to their own LGBT people.